Unexpected
by miss selah
Summary: No one surprises him. Especially not Peter Petrelli. Peter x Claude


* * *

UNEXPECTED

* * *

_THWAP!_

Claude should have known better than to have though that this man - _no, _he corrected himself, his teeth setting on edge, _that's no man, that's barely even a boy - _would have been worth anything at all. _Why was he wasting time with him? Why didn't he just kill him now - diffuse the biggest bomb in the history of the world like that, rather than have all these worthless, pathetic training lessons that only resulted in bruises and headaches? _

And, because he didn't know the answer to that, and because the whole thing gave him such a monster of a headache, he hit him again.

And tried to pretend that he wasn't utterly pleased when Peter cried out in agony as the bamboo bite painfully in to his flesh.

_SLAP!_

Then the bamboo cracked in to his arms. Because he flinched, and Claude had so enjoyed watching him squirm, he hit him again - this time just above the knee cap. Peter almost went down, but he managed to catch himself halfway, and glare at Claude from underneath those dark, bushy eyebrows. He looked as though he wanted to say something - he looked as though he wanted to _kill _him. But, wisely, he kept his mouth shut and came at him again.

The day before last, long after the sun had set, Peter had complained to Claude that the metal rods were too much, even for him. Even though his body healed itself in his sleep. Claude had smiled, and assured him that he would find a new weapon to suit his girly tastes immediately.

Claude had been utterly disgusted with himself when he found that he was _pleased_ that Peter's face had lit up when he saw the bamboo, and realized that there would be no more blows from the metal poles.

Claude had been decidedly less disgusted with himself when Peter realized how much worse bamboo was, if you knew how to wield it properly. Which Claude did. Which Claude very much doubted Peter didn't already know.

Because metal will crush bone, and metal will bruise. But bamboo will do that, too - as well as deliver thin, itchy cuts not unlike paper cuts, as well as sweltering blisters the likes of which Peter had never known existed.

By the end of the first day, Peter had polietly asked for the metal rods back. Claude was hoping that by the end of today, he would be _begging_ for them.

_WHOOPOW! _

Claude was only pretending to hit him. Because really, Claude was hating him. After all, Claude should have known better than to actually _expect _something from this _boy. _Just because he had managed to surprised him once - a feat for such a moronic boy, to be sure - to catch him off guard when he _hadn't known there was someone like him, _didn't mean that he should have expected anything more.

Which didn't explain why he kept waiting for more.

_CRUNCH! _

His bones would break under Claude's administrations, but Peter continued to fight him. Because Peter had a mission that he had to complete no matter what the toll on his own body. Because while Peter was in pain now, pain was better than death any day. Because Peter was stupid.

But even _that _was expected.

"C'mon, boy!" Claude pressed shaking away the depressing though with another swift blow from the bamboo stick. "Why don't you fight back?" he demanded, and hit him again, over the head.

"I'm trying!" Peter screamed in a sarcastic tone, laughing because if he didn't, he had no doubt that the pain would make him weep. And Peter knew that if he were to weep, Claude would see that as a sign of weakness and beat him harder - or worse, not beat him at all. The thought of Claude giving up on him, of Claude getting bored with him, was enough to endure the blows of the bamboo for just a bit longer. It was enough to get him to ignore the cool sweat that ran in to his eyes. It was enough to get him to ignore the warm blood that ran down his arms.

"Not good enough." Claude sighed, and hooked him beneath the chin, causing Peter's world to darken dangerously. He stumbled for a second, cradling the split chin in his palms, and shaking his head to clear it, before darting in again for another attack.

But it was Claude's fault, really. Claude expected too much of him. Not ability wise, no. He was right to push him to use his powers correctly. No, Claude pushed him to far every day to do _something. . . _but that was a weakness on Claude's part. He had been bored for so long, alone for so long, he yearned for something more. . . unexpected.

"C'mon, Peter." Claude said, holding his weapon down for a moment, leaving himself open for an attack from Peter. Hopefully, an attack that was not from brute force, but from an ability that he had managed to pick up from someone. "Surprise me." He tried to keep his need out of his voice, but from the way that Peter stiffened, he knew that he had heard it.

Peter looked down - _slowly, that boy can't do that during a fight, he'd get killed - _before doing something so unexpected it caused Claude to drop his tenacious hold on the bamboo stick that he held in his finger tips.

He leaned forward, and he stepped up, and . . .

_. . . kissed _him.

"What?" Peter asked, trying to come off sounding more collected than he felt, because Claude didn't take any interest in weak people. And Peter was beginning to think that he was much, much weaker than he had ever considered himself. His tongue followed the path of Claude's chapped lips and down to his chin, where he nipped expertly at his sharp jaw line. "You asked me to surprise you."

Claude came out of his stupor with a grin, something that certainly shocked Peter, who wouldn't have been surprised if he had decided to clock him right upside his head. "Fantastic."

* * *

Back in his flat, Isiaac Menedez stared in confusion at the lastest scene that he had painted.

It was on the rooftop, as had most of his paintings been, but more than just the pigeon droppings and feathers was a rather bloody looking bamboo stick and random articles of clothing overlapping, some hidden in the shadows of the sunset.

And the shadows seemed to be doing something _very interesting _indeed.

* * *


End file.
